U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,535 to Bartlett et al and Akeel et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,342,536 disclose apparatus for opening and closing doors of a vehicle body during the painting of the vehicle body by a robot. The apparatus includes primary and auxiliary arms mounted on a carriage. The apparatus is taught to follow the vehicle body as it moves through a painting station. During the tracking operation, the secondary arm of the apparatus is extended to engage a fixture mounted to a door of the vehicle body. The door is opened by driving the fixture through an arc predetermined by the relationship between the fixture and the door hinge axis. The apparatus includes hydraulic motors, servo valves, resolvers, gear boxes, a pneumatic cylinder and a control valve. Considerable electronics are involved in the control portion of the apparatus to provide continuous feedback and command signals. The electronics also contains therewithin the various paths corresponding to the various body style door configurations. Numerous electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic lines extend to the moving parts of the apparatus.
The automatic opening and closing of various closures of vehicle bodies such as hood or deck lids presents a problem in that the closure often does not rotate about a single hinge axis between its closed and fully-open positions.